Time to phase out old rail cars

The Daily Journal is reporting the oil industry and the railroads are giving U.S. regulators a plan to phase out a type of older tank car connected to fiery accidents, including the one a year ago in Quebec that killed 47 people.

courtesy: Sûreté du Québec

The publisher of the story was talking on a condition of anonymity to a couple of people familiar with the plan, which calls for thicker walls for new cars to make them less vulnerable to puncture, The parties agreed to scrap a fleet of thousands of DOT-111s within three years if manufacturers agree they can replace or retrofit the tank cars in that period.

The coming together of the two industries is not how things have been done recently. Both have had different views on how the issue should be handled, with the oil industry pushing for greater safety features to avoid derailments. The rail companies had been insisting new cars are the way to go.

Earlier in the year Transport Canada initiated a three-year phase-out of tank cars ordered before October 2011, when the industry introduced a car design to include shields at the ends and protection for valves on the top. The agency also now bans tank cars built before the mid-1990s, from carrying dangerous goods.